A Note on the Hospice of II. Selim of Konya in the Sixteenth Century

Abstract

There was an Ottoman hospice constructed by II. Selim, Ottoman Sultan, in Konya, before the year of 1563, near the complex of Mawlana Celaleddin Rumi. This building was pulled down in 1958. Today there is no any remnant on this buildings. When II. Selim, one of the sons of Suleiman the Magnificent, was an Ottoman prince in Konya, some tax revenues were devoted to his hospice in Konya by him before 1563. Today we hold tree wakfiyyas on the hospice. One of them is preserved at the Archives of Pious Foundation of Turkey in Ankara (No. 734, pp.168-175), other is preserved the Archives of Mawlana Museum of Konya (No. 120/2). Prof. Yusuf Küçükdağ says that there is also another wakfiyya on the hospice in the Museum and Library of A. R. İzzet Koyunoğlu of Konya (No.13396) that he published this documents in Konya in 2019. In addition to these Ottoman documents, I founded a new archival document on the hospice at the Archives of Directorate of Land and Cadastral Office of Turkey in Ankara that titled Defter-i Evkaf-ı Merhum Sultan Selim Han der Konya (Daftar on the Pious Foundation by the Late II. Selim in Konya). This document was prepared on October 1585, in the reign of III. Murad. Important information on the hospice were given in this unpublished document. According to this document, tax revenues by Kayı nomads who were unsettled in the district of Bayburd of Konya and by some Turcoman peasants were assigned to the hospice of Konya by II. Selim. As known, Kayı tribe was one of the important Oghuz tribes and founded Ottoman Empire. İn the second part of sixteenth century, they hold semi-nomadic life around Konya and supported the hospice fiscally. Accordingly, it is understood for the documents that there was a strong fiscal connection between II. Selim and Konya Kayı.